The Inquirer

Uber quietly loses $3bn as its self-driving car chief jumps ship

That's five senior staff this year

Uber
Uber stressful?
0 Comments

UBER HAS lost yet another big name as the crapsy-cab firm racks up more huge losses.

Sherif Marakby was the vice president of ‘global vehicle programs', which includes the self-driving division that has recently under legal fire from Google for allegedly stealing its ideas.

"Sherif's deep experience and knowledge of the automotive industry have helped us tremendously in working to make self-driving cars a reality," said Uber to TechCrunch when news of his departure broke. 

Marakby is the latest in a string of senior executive departures from Uber, many of whom have lasted almost no time at all with the company - in this case, just a year. No fly-by-night Marakby, either, having worked at Ford for 25 years before being tempted, all too briefly, over to Uber.

This year has seen its head of communications, head of AI, vice president of product and senior vice president of growth all leave. Oh, and the company president, as well, following a string of bad publicity over a number of issues ranging from abuse of drivers, institutional sexism, and exploiting Trump's travel ban.

As if all this wasn't enough, the company very quietly announced on Good Friday that its losses for the last year could be approaching $3bn dollars. That's more than the entire GDP of Burundi and about half of founder Travis Kalanick's estimated personal net worth.

The company, which continues to grow, had been valued at $62bn in its last funding round. However, it keeps getting pasted with more and more bad press, mostly due to its own stupidity, with Kalanick saying recently, after an altercation with a driver, that he had received "a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up".

At this point, he agreed to hire a "handler" to help him, prompting CEO Jeff Jones to quit, seeing his role as having been effectively sidelined.

So where does this leave Uber? Has it grown too big to fail or will its investors get cold feet? Many are pinning their hopes on Kalanick's unnamed handler to bring some stability to the increasingly rickety vehicle. µ

INQ Latest